6.  The applicant, Mr Vladimir Parnov, is a Moldovan national who was born in 1986 and lives in Chişinău. At the time of the events he worked as a security guard in a café in Chişinău.
7.  According to the applicant, on 22 March 2005, he was approached by four individuals while walking along a street. They offered him a package, the content of which was unknown. At that moment two plain-clothed persons shouted: “Police, don't move”. All the persons started to run, including the applicant. According to the applicant, he was not convinced that the person running after him was a police officer. After being chased for approximately seven hundred metres, the applicant stumbled not far from his house and was arrested by the chasing police officer. The applicant was wrestled to the ground and a pistol with tear gas, which he possessed by virtue of his job, was removed from its holster. The police officer beat him up and then called other police officers to the scene. Later, several passers-by and the applicant's brother-in-law approached the scene, stopped the police officer from beating the applicant and forced him to let the applicant go. The applicant and his brother-in-law were handcuffed and taken to the police station. The former was arrested on charges of aiding the latter to resist arrest.
8.  The applicant submitted that he was ill-treated in the car on the way to the police station and at the police station by several police officers. In particular, he was punched and kicked all over and hit on his head and other parts of his body with a plastic bottle full of water. His head was banged against walls, the floor and furniture.
9.  According to the Government, during the chase the applicant shot at the chasing police officer from his pistol and then resisted arrest. The Government contested the applicant's allegations about any ill-treatment after the arrest and submitted that all of his injuries were a result of his resisting arrest.
10.  On 23 March 2005 the applicant was taken to a court and charged with the administrative offence of resisting arrest. He confessed during proceedings to having fired at the police officer from his tear-gas pistol. On the same date he was found guilty of firing from a tear-gas pistol at a police officer during the chase and sentenced to five days' imprisonment. The next day the Chişinău Court of Appeal upheld the applicant's appeal and changed the sentence to a fine of 180 Moldovan lei (MDL).
11.  On 23 March 2005 the police officer who had arrested the applicant lodged a criminal complaint against the applicant complaining that he had shot at him with a tear-gas pistol. On the same date he underwent a forensic examination which showed that he had scratches and bruises on his knees, the palms of his hands and elbows. The injuries were qualified as “light injuries” needing between six and twenty-one days of medical care. The criminal complaint was finally dismissed on 20 May 2005 on the grounds that the applicant had already been convicted for the same offence in the administrative proceedings which ended with the judgment of the Chişinău Court of Appeal of 23 March 2005.
12.  On 23 March 2005 the applicant was visited in custody by a prosecutor. He complained that he had suffered ill-treatment by the police officers and the prosecutor ordered a forensic examination of the applicant's injuries. That examination was carried out on 31 March 2005. In the meantime the applicant was released from custody on 24 March 2005 and was seen by doctors who diagnosed him with a fractured cranial bone, first-degree concussion, post-traumatic acute otitis media of the right ear with perforation, and contusion of the soft tissue of the head and face. On 30 March 2005 the applicant underwent surgery in order to repair the torn tympanic membrane (eardrum).
13.  On 31 March 2005 the applicant was examined by a forensic doctor who found that he had suffered a perforation of the right eardrum and a first-degree head injury. The doctor concluded that the injuries had been caused by contact with a blunt object of a limited surface area, possibly in the circumstances described by the applicant, and that they qualified as “light injuries” which needed between six and twenty-one days of medical care.
14.  On 19 May 2005 the Rascani Prosecutor's Office dismissed the applicant's complaint of ill-treatment. The grounds for dismissing the complaint were the statements of the accused police officers, according to which the applicant had resisted arrest and shot at one of them from a tear-gas pistol. According to the police officers they were obliged to apply force in order to arrest and restrain the applicant and all of his injuries were a result of that. The applicant submitted that he had been ill-treated at the moment of the arrest, in the car and at the police station. He also denied that he had fought the police officers and fired at them from his gun. He submitted that his confession that he had fired at a police officer in the administrative proceedings had been made under duress. The Prosecutor's Office heard testimonies from several witnesses who had seen the applicant being restrained on the ground by a police officer and later being released after several persons had intervened. Some witnesses said that they had heard a gun shot. Only one of them stated that they had seen the applicant shooting at the police officer. Nobody had seen the applicant fighting the arresting police officer.
15.  The applicant challenged the above decision before an investigating judge. He contested the findings of the Prosecutor's Office and reiterated his complaints about the ill-treatment at the hands of the police. However, on 18 April 2006, following a public hearing, an investigating judge from the Râşcani District Court dismissed the applicant's appeal as ill-founded.
16.  On 8 February 2007 the Râşcani District Court acquitted the applicant in the main criminal proceedings against him concerning the possession and sale of marijuana. The court dismissed, inter alia, the accusations concerning the applicant's shooting at the arresting police officer with a pistol on the grounds of inconsistency in the statements of the witnesses concerning that event. It also considered that there was no evidence that the package of marijuana had belonged to the applicant and that he had intended to sell it.